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České Pohádky!

Story time!

Here's a Czech fairy tale, translated by me if you can believe it. It was a project that involved long hours of pouring over the dictionary and staring blankly at tables-full of scary, impenetrable grammar, but I think I have it, more or less. If anything isn't right, I hope my expert readers will straighten me out...

Of Rooster and Henby Karel Jaromír Erben, Illustrated by Václav Karel

One fine day, Rooster and Hen went to a sheltered wood together to look for nuts and kernels, and Rooster said: "Whatever we find, we'll share between us equally, in halves."

The little Hen agreed without hesitation. She raked and scraped and searched for kernels, and she shared them with the rooster with good will, and an open heart.

Rooster searched for nuts, too, but he was stingy, and wanted all of the freshest ones for himself, so he swallowed them up so that Hen wouldn't know, filling his throat with them until he was choking. Then, he called to out to her, saying "Come quickly, dear Hen, bring me some water, or I will die!" as he rolled and tossed himself about on the earth with his little legs in the air.

The spring said "I will not give you water until you bring me the seamstress's headscarf."

Hen went to the seamstress, therefore, and said:

"Dear seamstress, give me your headscarf for the springso the spring will give me waterfor my rooster; he's lying in the woodwith his little legs up --I'm afraid, I'm afraid he will die!"

The seamstress replied "I will not give you my headscarf until you bring me some slippers from the shoemaker."

Hen hurried to the shoemaker and said:

"Master, give me your slippers for the seamstress,so the seamstress will give me her headscarf for the spring,and the spring will give me waterfor my rooster; he's lying in the woodwith his little legs up --I'm afraid, I'm afraid he will die!"

The shoemaker replied "I will not give you my slippers until you bring me the bristles from a sow."

Hen then ran to the sow, and she said:

"Dear sow, give me a few of your bristles for the shoemaker,so the shoemaker will give me slippers for the seamstress,and the seamstress will give me her headscarf for the spring,and the spring will give me waterfor my rooster; he's lying in the woodwith his little legs up --I'm afraid, I'm afraid he will die!"

The sow replied "I will not give you my bristles until you bring me some malt from the brewer.

Hen ran to the brewer, and said:

"Brewer, please give me some malt for the sow,so that the sow will give me some bristles for the shoemaker,the shoemaker will give me slippers for the seamstress,the seamstress will give me her headscarf for the spring, and the spring will give me waterfor my rooster; he's lying in the woodwith his little legs up --I'm afraid, I'm afraid he will die!"

The brewer replied "I will not give you any malt until you bring me cream from the cow."

Hen hurried to the cow and said:

"Sweet cow, please give me some cream for the brewer,so that the brewer will give me malt for the sow,the sow will give me bristles for the shoemaker,the shoemaker will give me slippers for the seamstress,the seamstress will give me her headscarf for the spring, and the spring will give me waterfor my rooster; he's lying in the woodwith his little legs up --I'm afraid, I'm afraid he will die!"

The cow replied "I will not give you my cream until you bring me tender grasses from the meadow."

Hen ran to the meadow, and she said:

Dear meadow, please give tender grasses for the cow,to that the cow will give me cream for the brewer, the brewer will give me malt for the sow,the sow will give me bristles for the shoemaker,the shoemaker will give me slippers for the seamstress,the seamstress will give me her headscarf for the spring, and the spring will give me waterfor my rooster; he's lying in the woodwith his little legs up --I'm afraid, I'm afraid he will die!"

The meadow replied, "I will not give you my tender grasses until you beg for dew from heaven."

Hen begged. She looked up to heaven and said:

"Heaven, dear heaven, give sweet dew to the meadow,so the meadow will give me tender grasses for the cow,the cow will give cream for the brewer, the brewer will give me malt for the sow,the sow will give me bristles for the shoemaker,the shoemaker will give me slippers for the seamstress,the seamstress will give me her headscarf for the spring, and the spring will give me waterfor my rooster; he's lying in the woodwith his little legs up --I'm afraid, I'm afraid he will die!"

Heaven took pity on Hen and her rooster, and sent sweet dew to the meadow. The meadow gave tender grasses, the cow gave cream, the brewer gave malt, the sow gave her bristles, the shoemaker gave slippers, the seamstress gave her headscarf, and at last, the spring gave water.

Hen rushed back to Rooster with her little beak full, and she poured the water into Rooster's throat. As soon as she did, the nuts that were stuck there slid down into his belly, and he leapt up onto his little legs, flapped his wings, and crowed happily: "Kykyryky!"

Thenceforward, Rooster was never stingy again, and he always shared open-heartedly with Hen, until the end of their days.

I actually didn't change the "Kykyryky" from the Czech text. I left it, because of it's immense charm. I think that an American translation is "cockle-doodle-do!", but it's different in Britain and Australia, so I think the Czech is as good as anything. The transliteration would be "kee-kee-ree-kee."

Tosh, it can't all be about haiku. Only posts about my tragic love life are in haiku format. Get with the program, already!

Dear Pavel, jako obvykle, ty jsi moc hodný. It is a nice fairy tale, and I especially love it in Czech how all the people and things have their little names. It's a great flaw of the English language that it doesn't have such a sweet thing in it. I think it's difficult to convey the tone of it in English, but I tried.

Thank you for the tip about the name of the author, and thank you even more for a lovely lunch today. As always, it was a pure pleasure to enjoy your good company.